Monthly Archives: October 2016

HW for October 24; Essay 2 description up now (updated 10/20)

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Dear class,

Thanks for your hard work today.  I’m excited to begin our Novel unit.  As mentioned in class, the Essay 2 assignment description will be up on Friday. [UPDATE 10/20: Essay 2 assignment description is now available under Handouts.]

In the meantime, please read the Introduction and chapters 1-7 of Moreau. Use the lessons we’ve been practicing over the last few weeks: formulate interpretation-based questions to guide your reading, about any of the Elements of fiction.

Blog group 4 is slated to post by 5 pm on Sunday, 10/23.  Group 4: as usual, you have a choice of Clue, Connect, or Create posts, with the expectation that you should do a different category than you did in the first round of blogging.  Using notes from class + our own guiding questions, write a post that does any of the following:

-focuses on one “snapshot” from the first 7 chapters of Moreau, that seems to feature a mixture/combination of realistic details and surrealistic, supernaturalistic, or just plain weird details.  Explaining how the combination might offer a clue to answering one of your guiding questions.

–Compares/connects any “snapshot” from the first 7 chapters to any snapshot from our readings so far  Try to make one claim about why comparing those snapshots help you answer your guiding question.

–Create a paragraph-long monologue from the perspective of one minor character from the first 7 chapters of the novel. In a second paragraph, briefly explain how your monologue offers insight into answers to one of your guiding questions.

As usual, commenters should take care to post by the beginning of class Monday.

[UPDATE 10/20: A reminder that you need to obtain the right edition of Dr. Moreau – the same one available in the bookstore. I have updated the ISBN number in Course Policies to reflect this.  The bookstore only has 2 copies left.  

If you show up and there are no copies left, speak with a sales associate about filling out a pre-pay form and ordering the out-of-stock book. Provide your name and phone number, and the bookstore will call you when the book is available for purchase. When the book arrives, the bookstore will hold a copy behind the counter for you to purchase.] 

Have a great weekend!

 

HW for October 19

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Dear Class,

Thanks for your hard work today.  As mentioned in class, on Wednesday, we will be spending an hour writing an open book essay assignment.  The prompt will ask you to compare a snapshot from Mukherjee with a snapshot from Joyce.   The essay should 1) analyze the interplay between Elements in each Snapshot, and 2) offer a thesis about how comparing the snapshots helps us understand the authors’ approaches to common themes.

As you’re reviewing your notes, then, remember that the point of this essay is not just to point out similarities and differences between the snapshots (and certainly not to summarize).  The point is to make a claim about the significance of those similarities and differences.  How does paying attention to the snapshots’ similarities, OR differences, give you insight into Joyce’s and Mukherjee’s thematic concerns?  Perhaps they arrange their Elements differently, but arrive at similar insights.  Or, perhaps they seem to arrange their Elements similarly, but arrive at different conclusions about the same subject.

Finally, please bring your copy of The Island of Dr. Moreau, as we will end the class with a brief introduction to that novel.

I look forward to beginning our novel unit, and hope you do too!

best,

Professor Kwong

The Dead

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When I started reading the story “The Dead” by James Joyce, I thought the main character would be Lily, because the way writer mentioned her name at the beginning of the story. As we were reading through the story we saw few more characters involved in the story. Then all the focuses went to Gabriel and his wife Gretta. There was something going on between them, because writer didn’t mention them together in the same spot that much, even when everyone was leaving, she was upstairs listening to some song, while Gabriel was downstairs trying to find out is anything wrong with her. Then end of the story writer told us why she was acting like that. That tells us what kind of ‘Character’ Gretta is.

Clue – The Dead

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One thing that interested me was the relationship between Gabriel and his wife, it’s not something that interested me until page 78 where they depart the party, “She was walking on before him so lightly and so erect that he longed to run after her noiselessly, catch her by the shoulders and say something foolish and affectionate into her ear.” The seemed distant throughout the event and barely interacted, it made me wonder if their marriage was not going so well, the fact that they are not even walking together is also peculiar to me.

In the final paragraph on page 78 we get a clue as to how their marriage is going, “He longed to recall to her those moments, to make her forget the years of their dull existence together and to remember only their moments of ecstasy.” It seems that he views their marriage as boring, taking a turn for the dull as the years went by, remembering fondly their first times together and yearning for those days to return. Until that point we just get a few hints of their relationship, the fact that they don’t stay close throughout the party, her making fun of his insistence on using “galoshes”, him reluctant to share his “row” with Molly Ivors, all gives us hints that maybe everything is not going as well as it should, and that “snapshot” of just a few sentences on page 78 is the final clue needed to put it all together.

“The Dead” Clue Blog Post (Group 3)

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Originally in class the question as to “Why did everyone gather for Misses Morkan’s annual dance?”, was brought to light. When Gabriel began his speech in honor of Misses Morkan’s, this question is answered. “I wish from my heart it may do so for many and many a long years to come– the tradition of genuine warmhearted courteous–Irish hospitality, which our forefathers have handed down to us and which we in turn must hand down to our descendants, is still alive among us” (pg72). From Gabriel’s choice of words it seems that the annual dance has became a tradition within this community. The Morkan sisters, host this dance in order to pass down morals practiced by previous generations. Later in the speech Gabriel continues to  mention the “new generation” whom are actuated by new ideas and new principles. He believes due to the sceptical, thought-tormented age they live in, that this “new generation”, educated or hypereducated, may lack qualities of humanity, of hospitality, and kind humor, which belong to an older day. Misses Morkan’s annual dance however, give these kids (new generation) an opportunity to be surrounded by people of all ages, in hopes of influencing them to stay true to their kindhearted, people loving ways. The dance is the physical representation of the “old days” way of living and loving thy neighbor, still being practiced.